Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1977-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1983)
Set design, Campus treated lighting class aids techies Page 6 to Creationism lecture Page 8 «PRINT Wednesday November 16, 1983 Clackamas Community College Vol. XVII, No. 7 ‘Citizen involvement’ keys future levy vote By Shelley Ball Of The Print Voter apathy, confusion over the amount of money asked and the recent return of tax statements were reasons the Clackamas Com munity College Board of Education gave, at its latest board meeting for the Col lege’s levy failure. Of these three reasons, College President John Hakanson said he thought voter apathy was the deciding factor. “The people who you would normally ex pect to support the College didn’t show up to vote,” he said. Voting results, including absentee votes, amounted to 6,088 yes votes and 8,449 no votes. With an average Col lege attendance record of 9,500 to 10,000 students, Hakanson pointed out that there was a significantly lower number of yes votes than there are students atten ding the College. Confusion over the tax increase was another reason Hakanson thought interferred with the levy’s passing. Although the tax increase was from $1.24 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $1.39, an increase of 15 cents, Hakanson said some people got the idea the in crease was a full $1.39. In regards to the levy failure, Hakanson said he thought it was going to pass up until the last few days prior to the election. “I got this heavy feeling, like a fog com ing in. There was no excite ment about it (election) at all out there,” he said. Hakanson added that when he called people the day before the election to re mind them to vote, he receiv ed a lot of “blah responses.” When the levy will be presented before the voters again has not been determin ed by the College’s Board, but the earliest it can appear on the ballot is the fourth Tuesday .in March. The one current cutback to remain at the College because of the levy failure is the College’s hiring freeze. Should the levy continue to fail, however, summer school could be cut, purchase orders stopped and the stu dent class enrollment minimum could be increased. Whatever the outcome is for the second levy pro posal, Hakanson said citizen involvement is the key to winning the election. “In order to pass (the levy) we have to develop a campaign with more citizen in volvement,” he said. Although the levy’s failure on the first try may have surprised some people, this is not the first time it has happened. In the levy elec tion prior to this one it took two tries to pass the levy, and in 1971, when the College was operating on a one-year levy, four tries were needed. “The fact is if we don’t get the levy approved by next June, we’re out of business. We’ve the biggest training agency by far in the country. When people understand where the situation is, they will support it (levy),” Hakan son said. E7V GARDE —Clackamas Community College fencing students, (Left) Bill Alexander and Hakanson said an addi tional reason that hampered the levy’s passing was that it was the only event on the ballot this year and not many newspapers featured articles on it. (Right) Jason Scott, show the bests of their talents outside Randall Hall. Photo by Joel Miller Nationals Abshire paces harriers; Cougars place 4th Sophomore distance run ner Brian Abshire led the Clackamas Community Col lege Cougars to a fourth place finish at the men’s cross cout- nry National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kan. last weekend. Abshire has been the top runner for Kelly Sullivan’s squad the whole year, and his fourth place finish nationally was no different. The next Cougar did not cross the tape until 39th place overall, as Rob Connor filled that spot. Brevard Community Col lege, a North Carolina school, repeated as champions, despite having their top seven runners from a year ago gone. Southwest Michigan and Cen tral Arizona filled the second and third positions, respective ly, in front of the Cougars. Besides Abshire and Con nor, the Cougars team effort consisted of Don Nielson (45th), Matt Parker (49th), John Hansen (51st). Bob Nielson (5.6th) and Jeff Franklin (87th). Going into the tourna ment the Cougars were rated second nationally behind Ranger Community College of Texas. Ranger, who had been rated the top team most of the season, placed fifth behind Clackamas. Competing for the Women’s cross country team at the tournament on an in dividual basis were Julie Siler and Maria Gonzales. Clackamas did not receive a team score but Siler placed 24th and Gonzales 32nd. Elizabeth Lynch of Rick’s Community College in Idaho paced the women’s field with a 17:58 time.